European football news: Aston Villa triumph in Europa League final as English teams dominate the continent
With Unai Emery’s side making light work of Freiburg in a 3-0 win on Wednesday, May 20, Arsenal and Crystal Palace will look to follow suit with European finals of their own in the coming weeks.
Arsenal will face PSG in the Champions League final where a famous Double could be secured for Mikel Arteta and his team, writes Sports News Blitz’s Gabriel Mills.
Palace have navigated their way through to the final stage of the Europa Conference League and will face top-half La Liga side, Rayo Vallecano.
Brilliant in Budapest
Following a cagey start to proceedings, Villa grabbed the all-important opening goal in the 40th minute - a well-rehearsed set-piece routine was volleyed home expertly by Youri Tielemans.
In the second minute of added time in the first half, an equally beautiful goal was fired in for Villa, this time it was Emiliano Buendía with a curling effort from outside the box.
The self-proclaimed ‘Pride of the Midlands’ were enjoying themselves in the second half as Morgan Rogers prodded home a third to seal a first major trophy in 30 years.
Their German opposition offered precious little over the 90 minutes - a discredit to their fans who were in fine voice all evening.
In 2020/21, survival was secured on the final day of the Premier League season - six years on and Aston Villa will play in the Champions League for the second time in three seasons.
Arsenal’s big chance
Arsenal’s 22-year wait for a league title ended on Tuesday, May 19, and while celebrations have been wild, there remains a monumental matchup in two weeks' time.
Having lost the Champions League final to Barcelona in 2006, Arsenal will be desperate to lift a first major European trophy this time around.
Having enjoyed a perfect group phase by winning all eight matches, Arteta’s side have conceded just twice in the knockout rounds to this point.
Their opposition in the final are a completely different outfit - PSG have scored 18 knockout goals to Arsenal’s six, with the likes of Ousmane Dembélé, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Désiré Doué frequently netting.
Despite no English teams participating in the last two Champions League Finals, 2018-2023 saw a run of five out of six finals featuring a Premier League side.
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English-dominated Conference League
When Crystal Palace face Rayo Vallecano in Leipzig on May 27, they can become the third English team to lift the trophy since its introduction in 2021/22.
Like West Ham in 2023, Aston Villa in 2024 and Chelsea in 2025, English teams in the Conference League are often among the heaviest of favourites with Palace being no exception.
The Eagles have soared through to the final despite a fairly difficult league phase.
After finishing tenth, Palace needed a play-off win against Zrinjski Mosta to progress further but since then have comfortably fended off Fiorentina and Shakhtar Donetsk, 4-2 and 5-2 respectively.
If Palace are to triumph in this competition, some may begin to argue that English teams are too strong in this tier of European competition.
This season is the first time all three European finals contain English sides however, a trend that may continue in years to come.
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